Family Outing Turns Tragic As Car Hits Truck

Daniel Berka's daughter, Anastasia, lived with his former wife, but he still managed to see the 4-year-old a couple times a week. Saturday was reserved as their special day together.

They would go to the movies, to the park, and on occasion, to a museum. Berka's father, 75-year-old Louis, often rode along, said a relative, Virginia Weibel.

On Saturday, the trio set out from their Milwaukee neighborhood at 8:30 a.m. for a 2-hour trip to the Museum of Science & Industry on Chicago's South Side, Weibel said.

It was their last Saturday outing. On the way back, on an icy stretch of U.S. Highway 41 just north of Gurnee, Berka's car crashed into the side of a semi-tractor trailer, shearing off the top of his car, police said.

Berka, 36, a security guard at a Milwaukee college, and his retired father were killed instantly. Anastasia was rushed to Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, but efforts to save her were unsuccessful. She was pronounced dead at 4:30 a.m. Sunday, a hospital spokeswoman said.

The accident was the deadliest on a day filled with major crashes and fender benders, the result of a blanket of freezing rain that coated roads from Chicago to Texas.

The most spectacular of the crashes occurred about 1:30 p.m. Saturday on the Kennedy Expressway, when a Jeep heading toward Chicago in the express lanes slid out of control on a curve near Addison Street.

The Jeep caused a chain reaction. Cars smashed into other cars and into the concrete barrier that separates the express lanes from other traffic. In all, 40 cars were involved in the accident and 62 people were hurt, mostly with minor injuries.

One of the injured, identified as Jing-Jing Zhang, 29, of Chicago, died late Sunday at Illinois Masonic Medical Center, a Cook County medical examiner's spokesman said.

Three other accident victims remained hospitalized at Illinois Masonic: Zikang Pan, 27, the husband of Jing-Jin Zhang, who was listed in critical condition; Cheryl Brown, 39, listed in fair condition; and Peggy Hairston, 51, listed in fair condition.

Martha McCartney-Crow, 57, remained in good condition Sunday at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, a spokeswoman there said.

McCartney-Crow, who suffered two broken ribs, said Sunday from her hospital bed that she left her Wilmette home Saturday afternoon with her husband, Mer, and another couple, heading for a wedding on Chicago's South Side.

The rain started about the time they left, and it was freezing on the road, she said. But the car, a Chrysler New Yorker, didn't seem to have any problems negotiating the slippery pavement.

When they came around the curve on the Kennedy, McCartney-Crow said they couldn't see the accident until it was too late. Their car was about the 10th to slide into the pileup.

"It was like we were sliding on an ice pond," she said. "I kept saying, `Dear Jesus. Dear Jesus.' It was this violent crash, and we kept getting hit, hit, hit from the back.

"It was very scary because you just kept getting hit," she said. "We kept wondering who was getting injured."

Jim Klafeta, engineer of operations for the Illinois Department of Transportation, said maintenance crews were prepared for the storm and had salted the Kennedy's express lanes once before the accident.

"There was plenty of salt down, but people were driving entirely too fast," he said. "You can't make a road 100 percent driveable. This is January. It's not July."

The roadways were so treacherous that several salt trucks were rear-ended on Saturday, he said. There were several other multi-car accidents on area expressways, he said, although none so serious as the Kennedy crash.

Klafeta said a driver made two passes on the Kennedy prior to the accident. The driver salted the roadway only on the second pass because it wasn't sleeting during the first, he said.

The driver was beginning to salt the express lanes a second time when he got snarled in traffic from the accident, Klafeta said.

It was unclear Sunday if the weather is to blame for the crash outside Gurnee, which is still under investigation.

Police said there was about an inch of slush and water on the road at 6:35 p.m. Saturday, when truck driver Kenneth Reimer drove his semi out of a truck stop on U.S. 41, a quarter-mile north of Stearns School Road.

Reimer, 52, had pulled out into traffic to go south on U.S. 41 with his trailer blocking the northbound lanes. That's when Berka's 1979 Pontaic Firebird slammed into the truck.

Reimer, of Grafton, Wis., was charged with failure to yield the right of way from a private drive, police said.

Police identified the Berkas from a small card found in the crumpled wreckage of their car, with Anastasia's fingerprints on the front and her name on the back, authorities said. She had made it earlier that day at the Museum of Science & Industry.